Memorial Day Weekend Parking Lot

I have to say, "shame on the California Department of Transit and CalTrans." Who, in their right minds would decide to do construction on one of the biggest, most traveled interstates over Memorial Day Weekend, causing "up to 5 hour delays" without actually warning the travelers in advance? Did the DOT conveniently forget that I-5 is one of the 2 main routes connecting LA to Northern Cal and that you can't really go anywhere but through a traffic jam once you've reached the Grapevine, i.e. the 5-hour pile up of idiot drivers, douche bags jerks who put their hazards on and drive the shoulders, and the cluster-f**k of people trapped at the mini city at the start of the hill attempting to park so they can pee before their 1-mile-an-hour crawl home.

Well, there was a sign 104 miles before the construction was to start, but at that point you're driving freely at 85-miles-an-hour thinking, "yea right, 5 hours? The sign must be broken." So you drive onwards, not heeding the advice to drive 56 miles out of your way to the alternative route, especially since you just came from that direction.

I went up North to the Bay Area for a Memorial Day Baby's Weekend. It must be something in the air because all my friends have been popping little bundles of joy out for the past few months. I haven't really had a chance to see any of them, so my friend, Nina, and I decided a 3-day weekend was the perfect opportunity. Knowing that Memorial Day is usually packed with other vacationers, we left the Bay Area early enough that we would be home at a decent hour, accounting only vacationer traffic, into our travel time. When we had driven over the 5 on our way north, no signs stated a construction delay on south I-5 for the weekend. We didn't know any better then to assume the freeway was in working order.

I guess we were a little ignorant of not checking news or traffic for the 6 hour journey home, but if something as major as a 5-hour delay is going to pop up, you'd think the DOT would have been advertising for weeks beforehand saying, "construction starting on "so-and-so date, going through to so-and-so date. Be prepared." Especially if you're driving down 101 and you cross over to the 5 via the 152. There should have been a warning telling you what an awful idea that is and to just stay on the 101. Instead, the only warning sign is 50 miles south of the 152, right before the 46.

Now, if you just traveled 52 miles to hit the freeway you want to be on, would you seriously drive 56 miles back to the freeway you came from to avoid a traffic jam you assume wouldn't actually be because you're thinking like any sane person, "there is no construction on a holiday weekend." Case in point, 1000's of people did the same thing we did and drove onward. It wasn't until we reached Lavall Rd, at the base of the Grapeville that all car movement ceased and we exited the freeway to pee and find out about the delay.

After weaving our way through the middle-of-nowhere's version of Carpocalypse - honking horns, people running red lights because they couldn't move on green, utter confusion of travelers, and assholes walking in front of the cars that can actually move - we peed and then asked the gas station attendant what was going on. Apparently there was construction for 13 miles heading up the hill and he had no clue when the crews stopped for the night or if at all. Nina and I wanted to wait it out, seeing as no one could even get out of the gas station parking lot, but if the crews worked 24-hours, we were going to have to endure the snail ride home eventually.

We decided on food and then travel. By the time we exited Panda Express, the cars were at least advancing onto the freeway from the parking lots, a vast improvement from an hour and a half earlier. We decided to risk joining the crowd. I ended up driving in the truck lane, a smooth 5-mile-an-hour lull upwards which turned out to be better then the constant stop-and-go of the other lanes. After about an hour and change, we merged from 5 lanes to 3 and the average car speed climbed to 30 mph. No construction crews, apparently they had taken the weekend off. But by looking at all the road work signs and the way the lanes merged, construction on south I-5 has been shitty for a while.

I would assume that all the locals in the area knew about the problem areas, but if you're not from the area, you're just baffled. So, no construction workers causing the 5-hour delay, just good old fashion freeway expansion and very poorly advertised warnings for the non locals, i.e. the holiday drivers. Hell, when the Bay Bridge was closed for construction there were warnings 200 miles away. So, DOT and CalTrans, next time, tell someone, advertise your massive delay way before it's too late to turn around. And that's all I've got to say!